Groningen Feels Fresh Tremor
An earth tremor was felt in the heart of the Groningen gas producing region of northern Netherlands at 4.25pm local time (3.25pm GMT) February 8, this time in the town of Loppersum.
With a magnitude of 2.0, it was the second strongest this year following the one at Zeerijp on January 8 which registered 3.4 magnitude. Although felt by many, and reported by dozens to local media, its impact is less serious than the Zeerijp one. It is however the 11th tremor caused by gas extraction in the region so far this year, although most of those recorded by Dutch meteorological agency KNMI have been less than 1.0 magnitude.
Economy and climate minister Eric Wiebes must decide by next month at what level future Groningen gas production should be. The cap had been 21.6bn m3/yr - itself only 40% of what the Groningen field produced in 2013 – but on February 2 Groningen producer NAM shut in production from the Loppersum clusters of the field immediately upon a request of the minister acting on advice from inspectorate SSM. The latter has advised the minister that a future cap of 12bn m3/yr should be set for Groningen production, a little over half today's output.